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“I’ve been told it lends me a rakish air,” Jack said, twiddling the ends. “What say you, Lizzie? We’ll have a female opinion, if you please.”

Lizzie regarded him thoughtfully. Jack was far better looking than any of the three young men who had been dogging Ema and Zaya’s steps all day, but certainly too youthful for a handlebar moustache. He could not be more than three and twenty. “I think it detracts from your boyish appeal,” she said truthfully.

“There, you see,” Benedict said, though he looked a little askance at her mention of ‘boyish appeal’.

“She’s bound to back to you,” Jack complained, but his hand dropped from fondling his moustache and he grinned all the same.

Frank sat up, seeming determined to make an effort. He picked up his mostly full tankard. “To Greenwich,” he said rousingly.

They all lifted their beer and repeated the toast, taking gulps of their beer. Lizzie was surprised to find hers rather refreshing.

“This is much nicer than the stuff Mrs. Napp had,” she commented as Frank and Jack fell into discussing the merits of leaving that very evening as opposed to the next morning. Benedict dragged his seat closer to hers and draped an arm over the back of her own. “How was your day?” he asked.

“Strange,” Lizzie responded truthfully. “Yours?”

His gaze swiveled from her own to contemplate Jack a moment. “Unexpected.”

“That too,” Lizzie agreed.

He turned back to her, lifting his drink to his mouth. “How did you spend your time?”

Lizzie colored guiltily but hoped the shadowy surroundings obscured her reaction. “Uneasily,” she admitted. “I kept thinking Annie would jump out from behind every waxwork. Or Connie,” she added. “The others seemed to think it was imperative we stayed out of her sight. Funnily enough though, it was Daphne who sprang out at me in the end.”

“Daphne?” he frowned, lowering his beer.

“She saw us going into the theatre tent,” Lizzie said frankly. “The girls had gained some admirers by this point, and Daphne seemed to think I was doing something I ought not. She was … gloating about it. Like she had one up on me.”

Benedict set his tankard down with a thump. “What did she say?” he asked shortly.

“Nothing much, it was more what she implied,” Lizzie said evasively. “That I was being underhand or keeping company I shouldn’t.” Benedict eyed her in silence a moment and Lizzie rushed on. “Truthfully, I felt miserable all day. I’m not really sure why.”

Benedict’s hand slid from the back of her seat to shift comfortingly over her back. “It wasn’t your fault one of Connie’s acts did a bunk,” he said gruffly. “She had no right to lose her temper with you like that.”

Lizzie nodded. “I know.”

“It wasn’t your fault Annie happened upon us this morning either,” he added and shifted closer, and she felt his breath on her cheek a moment before he kissed her fleetingly there.

“Humph!” an explosive exclamation interrupted them. “So here you all are! Swilling beer and canoodling! I might have known!” Ma Toomes stood before their table with her hands on her scrawny hips. Daphne swung out from behind the malevolent old woman with a defiant look on her face.

“Ma, Daphne,” said Frank warily. “Take a seat.”

Benedict pulled on Lizzie’s hand, tugging her onto his lap. “Have this one,” he said kicking it toward his grandmother.

Ma seized on it at once and plumped herself down. “What about a chair for Daphne?” she demanded.

Frank came wearily to his feet. “Take this one, Daphne,” he offered and went in search of another. Daphne sat herself down with a great show of rearranging her skirts.

“Jack, go and fetch your old grandmother another pitcher of beer,” the old woman said with her eyes fixed speculatively on Lizzie’s face.

All of a sudden, Lizzie knew that Daphne had told Ma Toomes what she had seen earlier. She felt a sudden fervent gratitude that she had seen fit to confess all to Benedict, for she could see the old woman had a mind to cause mischief between them. Boldly, she passed an arm about Benedict’s shoulders and felt him relax against her.

Jack sighed but stood up anyway and made his way toward the bar.

“You might not look quite so cozy when you hear what that little wife of yours has been up to this day,” Ma said narrowing her eyes.

“Whatever she gets up to, it’s no business of yours,” Benedict replied in a bored voice.

“No business of mine?” Ma Toomes spat out. “We raised you to respect your elders!”